


From Darkest Day, to Brightest Night

by ActualMercy



Series: XiaoDan Kanemaru [4]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Granted Xiao is just as bad when you think about it, Hasty Leon is Hasty, Marriage Proposal, can you blame him though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23714713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualMercy/pseuds/ActualMercy
Summary: “Let’s get married.”“W… Wha-”“Let’s get married, XiaoDan.”
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Original Character(s), Dande | Leon/Original Female Character(s)
Series: XiaoDan Kanemaru [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707973
Kudos: 3





	From Darkest Day, to Brightest Night

**Author's Note:**

> It's not delivery, it's self indulgence.
> 
> In other words, I like to think that Leon is a Scorpio: and with that comes the Scorpio tendency of rushing into things. I can't blame the guy, though: when you're literally waking up from surviving the end of the world, hesitance doesn't sound like the most reasonable practice in the heat of the moment.

The last thing he could remember seeing was a flash of light: he had given explicit instruction to Charizard to take care of Hop and Ze, but that was it.

After that, everything went dark.

* * *

By the time he came to, the first thing to greet him was the blinding lights of the hospital room’s ceiling. How long had it been? How did he get here? Questions raced through the champion’s mind despite the fact that his head was pounding and it felt as if Raihan’s Duraludon had full-speed headbutted right into him.

Hazy eyes looked around at the room to find the stark white of the hospital room was interrupted by decorations of flowers and cards set up neatly along the table and where there was a surface to allow such placements. Those were from his fans, certainly, and yet why did it feel as if he were still missing something?

The pounding in his head only seemed to make itself more and more known the longer Leon tried to collect his thoughts, his hand squeezing down to grip at the crisp sheets covering him before realizing that, instead of starched cotton, he was holding onto someone’s hand.

Immediately, his head turned against the pillow to see a pale hand against his, the person it belonged to sitting at his bedside while their head lay against a free space in the bed. The feeling of that hand in his was already enough to confirm who it was, but the sight of the rest of her seemed to make his headache go away just the slightest bit.

_ Xiao- _

His lips parted to say her name, but it seemed that for however long he had slept, it left his throat dry enough to only result in a cough. It was completely tactless, but it was enough to grab the attention of the young woman at his side. He could only watch in silence as she jolted awake, her posture shooting up from where it was slumped against his bedside and letting him see her face.

She was an absolute mess.

XiaoDan’s cheeks seemed to be stained a bright shade of red to match the bloodshot look in her eyes- she looked positively feverish, but Leon knew full well that wasn’t the case at all. The redness at the tip of her nose and the way her eyes had the slightest puff to them was all even his groggy head needed to know that she had been crying- but for how long? Whatever the answer was, he didn’t want to know: the last thing he wanted to do was make her cry, and yet here he was, having made her do exactly that. And for what? Because he was hasty in trying to catch the literal cause to the end of the world. He wanted to protect Hop, protect Ze. He wanted to save all of Galar. But, it only ended in him being the one that was saved.

“Leon…”

Her voice was hoarse, as if she had been screaming. Had she been screaming his name?

“Morning, Princes-”

His greeting was cut short by her embrace, the hospital bed frame creaking just the slightest bit as XiaoDan launched herself towards him- she couldn’t stop herself, after having only his hand to hold for what felt like an eternity.

“You are awake...” Her voice was shaking as her hands clung onto him, the reality that he was awake finally setting in. He really was alive- he really was awake. For the last thirty hours, composure had been tossed aside to make way for hysterics and tears and praying to Arceus above that he would open his eyes. What little composure she was able to gather from just a couple of hours of sleep was quickly breaking as she choked out a sob, “You idiot, you idiot…”

At any other point in time, he would have asked why she was resorting to calling him that, but even when his head felt like it was going to split in two, Leon knew very well the reason for it. He had nearly died, after all. And to think, he promised her the world when he won the Championship Cup for the eleventh year in a row, only to end up nearly dying during it.

Funny, how fate decides to work the way that it does.

“Hey, hey,” His arms felt like they were made of lead as he lifted them up, his grip weak as he closed his eyes and rubbed her back. When they were standing, she towered over him by an entire head, and yet she always seemed to make herself feel so small whenever she was in his arms. He couldn’t complain, though. It was nice, being able to hold her like this despite the fact that she was crying against him. Leon always considered himself to be a romantic, but perhaps a near-death experience was all he needed to realize that maybe it was best not to waste time being picky regarding such trivial matters.

“I’m here, I’m here.”

The words came as a whisper against the top of her head, his voice grating against his throat as he felt the tremble of her shoulders calm the slightest bit. How long had she been wanting to hold him, to the point that she had buried her face against his chest and clung to him as if her life depended on it? More and more questions flooded into his mind, but he pushed them aside to realize exactly what had just happened over the course of the last day or so. He had nearly died. Not only that, but he had nearly died after promising the world to the girl crying against him, and like the idiot she was calling him, he tried to save that very world under the idea that because he was unbeatable, he was equally invincible.

_ God, I really am an idiot. _

He had been champion for a decade, and he had learned so much from it. But, it looked like there was still so much more he had to learn when it came to his own mortality. Golden hues closed to block the harsh light of the hospital lights when he laid his head back against the pillow. For once, his head was beginning to clear, but he wasn’t enjoying the singular thought that remained: he had nearly died.

The very realization hit him like a hammer to a nail, and his hand that had been rubbing XiaoDan’s back couldn’t stop itself from gripping against the loose fabric of her sweater. It was enough to grab the younger woman’s attention, her head lifting and letting him look back down to see jade pools glistening with tears. “Leon..?”

Somehow, it felt like an eternity had passed since she had spoken his name.

“Let’s get married.”

There was silence in the air as he said such a sentence so casually. The tears never stopped flowing, yet there was a clear mix of confusion, of disbelief in XiaoDan’s face as her sleep-deprived mind registered exactly what Leon had said.

“W… Wha-”

“Let’s get married, XiaoDan.”

This time there was more certainty to his voice- whatever he could find of it. His head was pounding and his entire body felt like it was made of lead, but through all that, he couldn’t stop himself from giving her a smile. “What, you don’t wanna marry the great Champion of Galar?”

Perhaps it was his charisma, or perhaps it was the joy of seeing that he was alive and awake finally hitting. But, something about the way he gave such an inquiry when just barely a few moments ago he had woken up from a 30 hour coma only to follow it up with a smile had the DayCare owner from Johto smiling, herself.

“We have known each other for little more than a month, Leon.”

“So? I know everything about you, and you know everything about me.”

“What will your mother say, to know that you proposed in so short a time?”

“We’ll just tell her that she’s that much closer to grandkids.”

“And what will the Chairman say when he finds out that his Champion has become betrothed?”

“Fuck it.”

The heaviness in the air seemed to have cleared with that crude response, the two of them finding themselves in a fit of laughter against each other. But, it didn’t last long before dehydration got the best of Leon- the rasp of his throat irritated by the sudden talk and laughter and putting him into a coughing fit. Such a fit was the only reason XiaoDan left her spot against him to pour a glass of water, helping him sit up so that he could take a proper drink and finally give his body the hydration that it so desperately needed.

It wasn’t long, though, before she resumed her spot on the bed with him once he lay back down. This time, her head resting against his shoulder as they stared out the window together to watch the twinkling of lights that was Wyndon in the evening. By that point, XiaoDan had turned off the lights to give their eyes a rest, and it was at that moment it registered for Leon that it was night time. Arceus’s sake, how long had he been out?

There wasn’t much time for Leon to contemplate the length of his sleep before his hand found XiaoDan’s own to lace their fingers together. Silence came over them, but it was a good sort of silence: peace, if one had to put a label on it. If he weren’t at the hospital, then it would have been a perfect night. But, at this moment, he couldn’t exactly complain: it was better than being alone, at the very least. It was only a bonus that XiaoDan was the one at his side, that she was the one he woke up to and was now the one to share in this view with him. The appreciation only further confirmed what had already been brewing in his mind.

“I mean it.”

“I know.”

He didn’t need to look at her to know that there was a hint of a smile playing along her lips, and he gave her hand a squeeze. For someone who stood a head above him and could easily overpower Turffield’s Fighting Farmer, he found it amazing to feel how delicate her fingers were and how gentle her hold was despite all that. “Once I win the Champion Cup this year, I’ll get you the most fantastic ring to celebrate. Just you wait, Xiao.”

“You have not yet even received my answer, Leon.”

“... Do I have to?”

Leon couldn’t stop himself from giving the fakest of whines, his head turning so that his eyes could meet with hers and he could see that glimmer of playfulness against pale green. He had to admit, she was very, very lucky that she was so cute whenever she smiled. “Alright, alright. Sit up, Princess.”

The creak of the hospital bed frame and the shuffle of bedsheets were the only sounds between them as XiaoDan sat herself up onto Leon’s lap at his lead, her hands finding his as he sat himself up and looked up at her. He didn’t have the full strength to get up and kneel, so this would have to do for the time being.

“XiaoDan Kanemaru,” the name was foreign: a little challenge for him when they first met to learn how to pronounce it right, but he loved it. Just as he loved every bit of her, from the very night that they met, to tonight as he looked up at his beloved to see moonlight dancing along graceful features and let long lashes cast shadows against her cheeks when she lowered her gaze to look at him. Even when she was a mess after crying for Dialga only knew for how long, she still looked positively radiant. “We’ve known each other for such a short period of time, but it feels like I’ve known you for so much longer. I’ve gotten to learn so much about you, and you about me. You’re three years my junior, and yet you wasted no time in teaching me to be a better man than I thought I already was.”

Her silence said it all, that she was listening to every word he said. Even with how dark the room had become, he could see that playful grin of hers softening. The jokes were over, but he didn’t mind in the slightest.

“In such a short period of time, you’ve taught me so much; I want to see what more we can learn of each other, what we can learn  _ from _ each other, with the rest of our lives ahead of us. Will you marry me, XiaoDan?”

Against the gentle light of the moon, he saw that little smile of hers curve upwards to one that he could only read as elated: it wasn’t often that he saw this smile, but it made his heart swell with a warmth like the sun shining after a rainy day.

“Yes,” the word was barely a second long to speak, and yet it rang in his ears over and over on repeat. Her hands left his to let her arms wrap around him once more, and Leon returned the gesture by holding her just as tightly. Even when she had been completely at his side, he still smelled the faintest hint of Pecha berries against ebony locks. “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”

His hand gripped at her sweater, and in the dark of night, with only the moon to guide them, Leon pulled away to look up at XiaoDan, at his bride-to-be, and relished the sight of her glowing against the silver light. Without another word from either of the two, their lips found each others’ as if to seal their promise. From the fear of the Darkest Day, to the happiness of their brightest night, thus began a new chapter in their lives- together, from here on out.


End file.
